How a School Attracted New Pupils Through Social Media

Social media in schools – headteachers and marketing managers know they need to use it. But how?

Derby High School had two main objectives: To use Facebook to attract more pupils, and LinkedIn to help their students find jobs.

Within a few months of going through Facebook and LinkedIn training, the school could see dramatic results.

Not only had the reach of the Facebook page increased by 5000%, Derby High School had also received enquiries from parents who’d seen its increased Facebook activity, and who wanted to send their children to the school.

Derby High School staff also wanted to build relationships with the local business community to help their students find work experience.

During her LinkedIn training, marketing manager Catherine Warwick was given the target of finding 20 useful contacts. These connections resulted in work experience opportunities and mentors for her sixth formers.

UPDATE: Derby High School hosted an event in May 2017 where local business people were invited to mix with sixth form pupils who’d been given networking training. 28 of the 40 delegates who attended were LinkedIn connections. In previous years, those invited would be people spotted in the news or business people met briefly at networking events. At least a third of people would usually drop out in the days leading up to the event.

“Using LinkedIn we had just three no shows,” says Catherine. “And those who couldn’t make it sent people in their place! It’s really been fab, I’m delighted!”

Can’t watch the videos? Then read the transcripts of our interviews with Catherine below.

Derby High School and Facebook

“We’ve been working with Status Social for about six months now, and we first approached them because we wanted to raise the profile of the school using Facebook, and get the parents to like more of our posts and to share some of the great things that are going on in the school, with people in their networks.

“The first thing I realised when we went to the workshop with Mark was that we’ve been doing it all wrong, and he quickly showed us how to rectify that.

“During the workshop, we worked on how to encourage the parents to share all the great things that are going on in the school, and how best to get Facebook to notice us and show us to other people, not just those who are linked with the school anyway.

“Within a week of going to the workshop, our reach of just under 100 people a week, had gone up by nearly 5000%, which was absolutely amazing. Engagement was up by 12,000% and page visits were up by 2000% so within a week we were seeing a massive difference, and within a fortnight, that had gone up even more.

“Now, six months down the line, the numbers are truly incredible. We’ve had enquiries from prospective parents who’ve come to us just because they’ve seen our updates on Facebook, they’ve got no other links with the school, and they want to find out more.

“People who come around on tours of the school say to us “We like the things that you’re doing on Facebook”, so for me, it’s great, and it’s a brilliant way of engaging with our parents who are already here as well, they’re liking seeing all the photos and things that we didn’t always get out to them before, so all in all, it’s been a fantastic success.”

Derby High School and LinkedIn

“Part of my role is helping our students engage with businesses, and a great tool for engaging with businesses is LinkedIn, so I was really keen to find out how I could exploit that a little bit more to help me in my work and to help our students here.

“I approached Status Social who set me a target of getting a least 20 useful business contacts on LinkedIn, and with the information that I’d learnt in their workshop that I went on, this was no problem at all.

“I just followed the guidelines that they’d set me, and within a month I was pleased to be able to report that I’d got at least 20 useful contacts, and 5 work experience placements and mentors for current sixth formers here, so it’s been really, really good for both the students, and also for me.”